American Go E-Journal » Other

The Austin Go Club sponsored the GOVID 19×19 Tournament over the weekend, drawing 42 players from across the country, Vermont to San Diego. Players ranged from 7 dan to double-digit kyu. Overall, there were five rounds, with 10 players in the Open section and 32 in the handicap section.

In the Open section, the best records went to Zhao Zhixun 7d (3-0) and   Zhou Yixian 6d (4-1). In the handicap section, Mario Espinoza 7k was undefeated with a 5-0 record. Other players with 4 wins were Evan Tan 2k, tshelix 4k, Patrick Sun 4k, Ray Heitmann 5k, Alexander Lo 7k, Jason Li (jsonli) 12k, and Benjamin Lo 13k.

The Austin Go Club thanks everyone who participated, and hopes to hold similar events in the future, especially while face-to-face tournaments are still not possible at this time.

-report by Bart Jacob

The deadline for the registration for the NY Go League is coming up at the beginning of October, and the New York Go Honor Society (NYGHS) encourages anyone that wants to continue playing organized games to enter. As in previous leagues, the only eligibility requirement is that players have a stable rank from any national association, or on any Go server. Click here to view our rules and regulations, and click here to register. 

This League will be a two-month long round robin tournament, with each division having 8-10 players, after previously being held over only one month. “With many places starting to reopen, it is becoming hard for participants to sustain multiple games per week,” says Toranosuke Ozawa, co-president of the NYGHS. “Now it will be one per week, if not slightly less over the two months.” Players are grouped based on rank, or their performance in previous iterations of the league, with the prize for the winner being a 50% discount for a New York IG Adult trial class (kids are eligible as well). “We hope that the community will be able to use this league as an opportunity to play lots of matches and further their experience with the game!”

The first North American Youth Open took place on September 5th, 2020 in the AGA Tournament Room on KGS. Hosted by the New York Go Association and sponsored by the American Go Foundation, the North American Youth Open is one of the highest-class youth Go tournament in North America. Over 100 youth players registered and competed for the highest honor and over $1,000 in prizes.

After 4 rounds of competition, award winners for the eight divisions were as follows:
Division A (4D and above) – 1st place: Michael Sato; 2nd place tie: Ben Gong & Frederick Bao
Division B (1D to 3D) – 1st place: Zixuan Gao; 2nd place: Ethan Whitman; 3rd Place: Katherine Xie 
Division C (3K to 1K): – 1st place: Derek Zhou; 2nd place: Alan Yang; 3rd Place: Steve Ling 
Division D (6K to 4K): – 1st place: Frank Wang; 2nd place: Chenhui Zhang; 3rd Place: Jason Yang 
Division E (10K to 7K): – 1st place: Manny Jauregui; 2nd place: Jamie Tan; 3rd Place: Daniel Luo
Division F (14K to 12K): – 1st place:Matthew Wang; 2nd place: Lucas Yang; 3rd Place: Lucia Moscola
Division G (19K to 15K): – 1st place: Enzo Aozono-Araldi; 2nd place: Caleb Tan; 3rd Place: Avik Hardy
Division H (25K to 20K) – 1st place: Yiting Liu; 2nd place: Eric Wang; 3rd Place: Enzo Moscola

The New York Go Association successfully held the 3rd annual New York Youth Open (NYYO) in the AGA Tournament Room of KGS on July 25, Saturday. This year, the NYYO attracted a record high 91 players from the United States and Canada. The players, ranging from 5 dan to 25 kyu, played four Swiss-paired even games in 8 divisions based on their rank. After a day of tough fighting, Alexander Qi emerged as the winner of Division A with a perfect 4-0 record.

Division Winners:
Division A (3D and above): Alexander Qi 5d
Division B (1D to 2D): Andrew Zhang 2d
Division C (2K to 1K): Stephanie Tan 2k
Division D (5K to 3K): Jason Yang 3k
Division E (8K to 5K): Mark Zhang 7k
Division F (12K to 9K): Isaac Zhang 9k
Division G (16K to 12K): Chenxi Du 13k
Division G (25K to 17K): Matthew Wang 18k

The team of tournament directors used the Golaxy system to actively monitor the usage of AI, for the first time in youth tournament in North America, in Division A. The NYGA expect to reinforce fair competition in all online tournaments through better anti-AI rules and practice, and encourages players to record their full games with video cameras in all high-level online competitions in the future.

The Austin Go Club will be hosting the online ‘GO’VID19x19 tournament on September 26th and 27th. The tournament will have both open and handicap sections with a total of five games held in the Austin Go Club room on KGS. The tournament is open to AGA members of all levels; the number and size of handicap divisions will be based on registration. Registration is open until 6pm CDT on Friday September 25th. For more details and registration information, please click here. Any questions can be addressed to AustinGoClub@gmail.com.

The 1st North American Youth Open will take place on KGS on September 5th! The NAYO (North American Youth Open) is an open youth tournament held by the American Go Association for players of all levels who are under 18 years old. With the support of the AGF, the tournament has a prize pool of over $1000.

The goal for the NAYO is to provide an opportunity for young players to once again compete in a high standard North American tournament. The AGA intends to host this competition annually and make this event the largest open youth Go tournament in North America. This tournament was originally conceived as a face-to-face tournament sponsored by the New York Institute of Go and the American Go Foundation. The organizers hope to return to this model once in-person tournament play is safe.

Eligibility: All of the participants must be under 18 years old by the date of the tournament. There is NO rank requirement to enter, players of all levels are welcome. Players with no rank may register as 25 kyu. All players must be a current AGA, CGA, or MGA members. Players whose ranks at their associations are out of date, but have a solid KGS rank with at least 10 recent games may enter. Pre-registration is required. Please visit the website for more information and registration.

The NYGHS is proud to announce that registration for the third iteration of the New York Go League is now open. Entry to the league is completely free and the only eligibility requirement is a stable rank with a national association or online go server. Register through our Google Form here, and click here to view our rules and regulations.

Due to a large part of our community taking part in the recently announced e-Go Congress, we have moved our starting date and registration deadline back one week to August 10th and August 8th, respectively, to avoid overlap. We want the community to have as many chances to play and learn as possible, especially during theses challenging times.

The league is a round robin format with around 8-10 people in each division. The prize for winners will be a 50% discount for a NYIG Adult trial class (kids are eligible as well). We believe that this prize corresponds with our motivation of creating this league with the intention of giving people a chance to play competitively and develop their skills in the game. We hope that the community will be able to use this league as a means of playing serious matches.

The 2020 San Diego Go Championship was conducted on KGS due to the Coronavirus. Twenty-eight players entered and completed the 5-round event over five weeks, playing one game a week. The winner of the Open section of the Ninth Annual SD Go Championship, with an undefeated record of 5-0, was Yixian Zhou 6d. Kevin Yang, a soon-to-be high school student, posted a strong record beating both 4d and 5d players.

Undefeated players with 5-0 records in the Handicap sections were Arunas Rudvalis 6k (winner of the high kyu group), and Anna Zhou 16k (winner of the >15k group). Michael Sanders 7k and Angelina Zhao 8k, tied with 4-1 records in the 7k-14k group.

Kevin Yang was selected as the 2020 San Diego Boys Go Champion.
Angelina Zhao was selected as the 2020 San Diego Girls Go Champion.

The San Diego Go Club is currently hosting the 2020 California Pair Go Championship online. There are 11 pairs of players competing in the Open and Handicap sections. KGS and GoClubs.org are both set up to handle Pair Go (Rengo) pairings and play.

The 2020 California State Championship run by San Diego Go Club will be held over Thanksgiving weekend. It will be a 5-round tournament with Open, Handicap, and Youth (13×13) sections. Registration will open November 1 when the determination will be made if it will be a face-to-face or online tournament. The 2019 California State Championship drew 65 players from 7d to beginners, with Evan Lin the champion.